The Dragons Of Storybrooke : First Home Visit
by Andysaurus
Summary: Dr Dracos takes his family ( not including his Three Evil Daughters and Malificent ) to The Dragon Realm. This has crossover elements with The Elder Scrolls, but is not in Tamriel or on the world of Nim.
1. Introduction

Well He was back. Dr Andrew Dracos could now resume using his normal authoritarian title of "Dracos" or "The Dragon Lord". Since matters in Storybrooke no longer concerned himself and his boys, and as his Evil Little Trio of Abscondees had found their way to Storybrooke to see their mother, Maleficent, it was time to make a fast exit. The boys could go back later to mind the business, since it might be some time before they would be able to feel settled in His section of The Dragon Realm.

Dracos had transported his little brood from a newly created Dracos Family Only portal near their home in Tideswell to an unassigned portal site on the edge of The Dragon Isles - or at least His part of the chain of island groups making up The Dragon Realm. The island group was actually a group of partly submerged volcanoes. The geography was similar to The Shivering Isles in the Oblivion Game that Dracos had "influenced". The landscape geology was superficially similar to Cornwall, where the family had taken the odd holiday, visiting Tintagel, the Dark Age Romano-British Port where King Arthur, whose true name was Rhiothalmus, was born. The islands were mostly un-weathered continental granites, which was odd since normally volcanic island rocks are the heavier basalt's. Non of the rocks were sedimentary in origin, although some metamorphic marble and the strange, rare, volcanic rock carbonatite, were present near the coasts. That meant that the coral reef created rock limestone would to be present - but as Dracos well knew, it wasn't.

Dracos was wearing his bluish armour, dragon motif shield on his back along with Dragon Staff, fire sword and shocking mace. A precaution in case of trouble. Some nosy or board neighbour might have laid claim to this areas vacant outlying tower and was busy trying to subdue the local serfs. That was just typical dragon behaviour, but could get nasty. Nothing seemed to be amiss here and the local outlying tower seemed unused. It's small harbour was nearby, where oared merchant galleys sailed across the reef to and from the other island groups. In the distance Dracos could scry the main complex made up of three groups of Dragon Towers on the central volcano which provided geothermal power for the old installation buried beneath the towers. Dracos also scryed the various teleports in the teleport chain leading to His Dragon Towers. Dracos could also sense a watching presence, an old presence that was watching over the area. Dracos asked it to keep a watch over the boys. After checking with the three boys that they understood the new fractal dragon growth spell, Dracos, along with their two pet wyvern dogs Jason and Buster, then took the trunk of Tuxedos and other stuff over to the nearby teleporter, and teleported to the next teleporter. Dracos was going straight to His tower to make sure that things were ok.


	2. Starting Out

The boys were going to walk. There had been some talk about bringing their motorbikes, but that might alarm the local serfs - the occasional repair crew dirigible flying over the region always did that. Anyway, they ought to get to know their homeland at a leisurely pace. Leo and Rex were wearing their Leather three-piece Suits and carrying large backpacks containing extra clothing and studded leather armour. Trian, however, was in dragon form, backpack slung beneath him. Dragons are highly territorial, so unless the dragon is a friend or family member, correct etiquette must be observed even though no adult dragon would consider actually harming a hatchling or chick. However, captive hatchlings and chicks make excellent dungeon trophies. There was also the problem of how the locals would react to strangers, and feudal lords objected on principle to unannounced strangers crossing their estates. Dragons they would show respect to, whereas serfs and even gentry could face a whipping or the stocks.

Although anyone had the right to travel along The Dragons Highways, strange humans could be in for trouble even though the patrols were ordered to be polite to, potentially dangerous or hostile, strangers. When humanoid emissaries passed into or through the Dragon Realm, having an accompanying dragon was a definite plus, but it had to be a subservient dragon so as not to offend the local dragon residents. The solution was either to have a "captured" dragon, which meant wearing a muzzle and a metafunction clamping collar as was done to interlopers, or a "pet" dragon, that is a dragon with a collar and lead, and muzzle. Trian was quite amused by the idea; Leo and Rex thought it revolting. Nevertheless, Trian fancied wearing a Spiked Slave Collar with Slave Bracers, and being led by the muzzle. Morrowind style Slave Bracers were intended to disrupt a slaves ectoplasmic aura and so clamp any advanced metafunctions. The Slave Bracers looked good on but should be useless. Only a Slave Collar was powerful enough to work on a dragon, and Trian was getting used to it. However, the Slave Bracers would prevent any Elemental Power discharges from Trians' arms, while the muzzle would prevent any venom spitting. Dracos insisted that the Boys take turns each day as enslaved pet dragons, since it would take at least 8 days, or more, to reach home. Since Trians' dracon, bipedal winged dragon, height was only human shoulder height, Rex applied the growth spell to Trian so that he came out somewhat taller than a human.

While the islands were covered by paths and trails, the boys were instructed to keep to the "road". The islands, while rocky, had valleys and gullies filled with rich volcanic soil, supporting a rich flora which resembled a wet subtropical Welsh or Cornish oak forest, but with the addition of exotic Tree Ferns and orchids resembling Cattleyas, Lycastes, Phalenopsis and Vandas. There were also hot springs and geyser's which could be dangerous. In wet places Pitcher Plants, Sundews, Disa's and other marsh orchids were abundant. So the warm, slightly windy, dry climate supported abundant wildlife, while being quite comfortable for the leather clad Boys to walk in.

Some denizens of the animal menagerie the Boys could recognise - like deer, rabbits, lemurs, parrots, small alligators, giant tortoises and lizards. Other wildlife was strange - pigmy 4 tusked elephants, chalicotheres which looked like a cross between a horse and a gorilla, the odd group of ostrich dinosaurs, land crocodiles, and various small harmless woodland ornithischian dinosaurs. Near the coast, where they had arrived, there were various fish eating pterosaurs as well as gulls. Higher primates were missing, but there were colourful parrot like Tapejerid pterosaurs and in the woods they could scry various strange gliding dinosaurs, small insectivorous pterosaurs, as well as various small raptor like dinosaurs and strange small mammals. All of the dangerous wild life was engineered to be dragon friendly, but if the animal was not very bright or had poor senses, it might bite first and ask questions later. Even the giant ground geckoes could give a surprising nip before letting go in disgust.

The Boys were finding one problem with the road, drainage or rather the lack of it. The road was designed to be low or no maintenance, so followed the lay of the land. This meant that streams ran over it, except were rock slabs were used to bridge wide streams. In many valley bottoms the road was flooded, sometimes quite deeply. That meant the Boys in their human forms, either got their feet and socks wet and then had to either psychocreatively dry them off, or else levitate. Rather than bother with the hassle, the Boys decided that to change into their Elizabethan Leather Suits, these had thigh length boots waterproofed with nikwax. Dad had taken a tin of nikwax to see if it might be better than the leather waterproofing used by the Tower servants. Besides the thigh boots, the suits comprised pants, slops (impressive baggy over trunks), both jerkin (over vest) and peascod doublet with central thong fastening bullet buttons, and a linen shirt. The doublet's sleeves were odd in that they were removablly attached by their tops, thus leaving a ventilation gap underneath the arm. The shirt came with sets of detachable ruffs. The wrist ruffs were inappropriate but they wore them anyway. The Boys could always clean their linen with stream water and psychocreativly dry and iron it. The ruffs were stiffened with a clothing thermoplastic rather than starch. The large ruff, 3" high by 4" wide, was inappropriate for an outdoor trek, but the narrow ruff, only 1" high by 3" wide" look ok. Dad had said that while only leather, the quality and cut of the suits would make them out as middle class, and with the big ruff, upper class. The suits also came with a sword carriage and a light weight sword which most other high ranking people had. The Boys knew nothing about sword play; these swords were enchanted for Spark On Contact.

The road was made from blue black vitreous bricks, rather like waterproof damp course bricks. The bricks seemed to repel moss and lichen growth. Trian guessed that the blocks were mineral deficient. The road was wide enough for a carriage and usually had an equally wide verge. Track ways and paths ran from it; most would be animal paths and best avoided. The road was not regularly maintained so it could be overgrown with roots, fallen rubbish or covered with horse, ox, chalicothere and Segnosaur droppings. Along the verge, or suspended from rocky overhangs, giant sack like pods grew. These, like fungi, kept the road clean from droppings, but in other ways were more like animals. If one squeezed the pods, the Boys could extract a nourishing drink. That's why travellers called them cornucopia pods. There was an ugly rumour based on superficially similar pods in certain Daedric realms which were used for "garbage disposal", that the pods were modified criminals.

Most of the fruiting trees, except for the cycads, were edible, and there were even the nests of stingless bees which could be raided. There were even bracket fungi which were similar to beef; the Boys knew of this sort of fungus from nature rambles around Derbyshire when they were younger. So there was no danger of going hungry. It was clear to the Boys that this was not a natural situation, someone or something was going to a lot of trouble to ensure both a diverse ecology and an abundant edible food supply, which by rights should have all been eaten by something. That might explain the lack of higher primates.

The main road was one of two main roads, each of which circled around from a harbour at the edge of the islands, across various bridges and apologies for bridges, connecting all the outlying towers and then spiralling inwards. Various feudal manors were close to each road, which in turn went through one of the two villages on the islands before reaching the Towers. Also, along the islands edge were various active and inactive portals, which were the official entry and exit points monitored by the Village Provincial Governors. The unofficial portals were the secret personal ones the dragons used, and were mostly in their towers. The harbour's slave

oared merchant galleys were the only other obvious way in and out of the islands.

Looking towards the coast, the Boys could see what looked like a Greek Temple overlooking the distant harbour and several small hill tops which had been converted into Tholos Tombs, basket beehives of cut stone covered in soil, with open stone lined passage entrances. The road was so steep that the Boys lost interest in investigating in that direction, for now.

Adjoining the road as it spiralled inland were various more "conventional ruins". Dad had explained that around the edge of the islands were portal sites, not all in use, marked by henges and menhirs. A linked chain of teleports along the spiral roads, linked the Towers with the edge of the islands. Scattered about the islands were various other sites, particularly along or near the roads. The "abandoned" Dungeons and Keeps were intended to act as hostels for travellers, the caves, tombs and tumuli were for Adventurers. The simple roadside dungeons and keeps had sanitation (somewhere) and were empty except for squatters. Anything else was "dangerous".

To provide a profitable social diversion for the Knights, prospective Squires and ambitious Serfs, these other sites were "treasure vaults" that were periodically stocked by the Dragon's Gremlin servants with loot, and the traps set. The traps could be real traps, or "inhabitants" who could be anything from mere Ghosts to Barrow Wight's. Depending on the class of site, and the Boys would be able to redesign old sites or create new ones, there could be enough loot to pay for outfitting a poor younger son with full armour, buying a manor, or improving a serfs status in various ways. The losers were not killed, but remained trapped until the local licensed slavers came to collect them.

The slavers were based in Dungeon Keeps away from the road, and worked in association with licensed "bandits", who represented another danger for Adventurers. Rules of Conduct ensured minimal bloodshed. The use of really dangerous weapons such as bows and crossbows was forbidden (anyway, dragons don't like them any more than armoured knights do). Adventurers might end up ether enslaved or joining up with the Bandit / Slaver group. The normal method for joining up was for an Adventurer, or Serf, to approach a group and request to join up based on trial by combat. Losing might mean enslavement. Other Keeps, Dungeons and Caves might contain covens of "Evil" magic workers, basically arcane juvenile bandits. There were also some "necromancers" practising (fake) human sacrifice in some places. And somewhere there was always a treasure guarding hydra or mega-anaconda to vanquish. Non of these overgrown kids or creatures should give the Boys any trouble, though they might find the odd Knight wanting to challenge them to a duel. Humour them. It all meant a good supply of slaves, and social stability by keeping trouble makers busy and reducing the supply of younger sons wanting an estate.

Dracos had told the Boys that the Provincial Governors, who ranked as Barons, originally belonged to two families of Breton minor nobility from High Rock. The families had, long ago, provided the mothers of the Boy's two older brothers, Alex and Liam who had families of their own in The Dragon Towers. The Barons maintained a small armed staff of retainers in their Keeps. Though trained as warriors, they actually acted as police. The road was periodically patrolled by their armed horsemen who also checked out the dungeons, keeps and other follies built close to the road. The dungeons tended to be used by slave traders passing through the islands. Male slaves were needed to keep the genetics of the small Human and Argonian population of the islands healthy, and the Dragons also liked to pick the slaves over. The rule was that slaves could be traded between the island groups, but could not be allowed to leave The Dragon Realm.

The slaves were traded either by using the Trading Portals between the islands, which required a fee, or by using them as additional, untrained, galley slaves to move cargo across the shallow sea between the islands. Since trained galley slaves accustomed to being chained to the oars and (lightly) flogged for an entire voyage were expensive, this was a favoured option. Some slaves even liked to remain as galley slaves since it made them eligible for later release. The work was not dangerous since the winds, currents and tides were not strong as the ocean between the island groups was not too deep. However, it was arduous work since the weak winds meant that the sails were inadequate and the insufficient number of naked galley slaves were kept chained to the oars, even in port, and whipped to provide necessary encouragement.

Dracos had said that because they, being dragons, might as tribute pick a Slave, nice Serf or Noble to be a dragon slave, the slave's female partner might come to the Dragon involved for satisfaction, which meant entering the Dragon's tower as a servant. This gave rise to the slander that Dragons liked damsels in distress. Twaddle. Except during the mating season, Dragons have no sexual interest at all. But it did mean a never ending stream of Knights Errant coming to demand satisfaction. The result was of cause that all of the Knights Errant ended up the dungeons for the Dragons to gloat over, compare and play with (torture?). Eventually the knights would be allowed to go home with some loot or were provided with a position somewhere. So every one eventually benefited from the arrangement.

In fact during their first day, the Boys were passed by a patrol who gave them a wide birth. The boys found a ruined Keep to sleep in that night. The Keep was in good condition considering the warm moist climate suggested by the vegetation. The reason seemed to be that the wood used in the Keep's construction was an indigestible hardwood, thus keeping the abundant fungi and termites at bay.

The Boys also found a small group of Slave Traders using the Keep. The two slave traders and their two guards had chained a dozen male slaves in the dungeon under the Keep. The Slave Traders didn't mind the Boys inspecting the Slaves, while Trian was treated with the greatest respect. The Boys could sense that the Slave Traders knew, sort of, what they were and considered that the Boy's would be potential customers. The Slaves didn't seem ill-treated or particularly unhappy, though the boys, even bad ass Rex who said that having a slave would be nice, didn't feel too happy about it. One of the slaves was wearing Slave Bracers, and appeared to be a minor mage. However, when the boys decided to sleep in the Keep the slave traders using it moved into the dungeon as the Boy's use of telekinesis and psychocreative ghost lights had made them nervous.


	3. Kilgarath Town 1

The slave traders got even more nervous the next day when Trian returned to human form, and Leo replaced him as the pet dragon. And of cause, Rex was amusing himself by using his coercion to help make the traders and their guards ready to crap in their pants. The Slave Traders seemed to leave in quite a hurry. Overnight it had rained, thus explaining the lush nature of the islands vegetation.

There was certainly a lot to see. At midday, the Boys passed a gigantic tumulus like mound and decided to climb to the top. At the top was the opening to a huge buried structure. There were some stairs so after scrying that there was no danger, they decided to descend and look around. On reaching the bottom they generated Ghost Lights and were shocked to find a large quadrupedal dragon, a bit like their Mother, Maleficent, in dragon form, observing them. The dragon introduced itself, in perfect English, as Kilgarath. Getting over their surprise the Boys introduced themselves, apologising for intruding. Kilgarath was amused, and explained that He had been scrying them since their arrival and had knew who they were. If they had been more skilled in farsensing they would have sensed him. Kilgarath had also cloaked himself from their scrying. Kilgarath explained that he was a wanderer, with no fixed territory, wandering from realm to realm via the portals. As all Kilgarath needed was food to hunt and a ruin or cave to rest in, most Dracons and Feathered Serpents were happy to oblige him. Kilgarath passed on all the gossip, and had been asked by the Boys older brothers, Alex and Liam, to help keep guard over the outlying areas while Dad was away. Kilgarath could not take on Human form without using shape-changing magic, although his front feet did have opposable thumbs for grasping, like the Skyrim Dragons of Tamriel.

Heading on along the main road, the Boys reached a more open park land region where they could see grazing giant armadillo like glyptodonts and ankylosaurs. They passed a several small manors and another road patrol. Clearly they were coming to a more inhabited region. The manors all consisted of a small stone Keep and Hall, with an adjoining stone walled enclosure containing cottages occupied by the dependant Serfs, barns and a mill. The arrangement almost resembled a mote and bailey castle. The Nobles, Retainers and Serfs appeared to be a mixture of Humans and Argonians. The Serfs, even the Argonian ones, appeared to be wearing a woollen? or linen peasant version of Tudor costume. The Boys leather suits had more in common with the armoured leather gear worn by the patrols. They were passed by several people leading either pack horses or "cattle" drawn wagons; the Argonian wagon drivers were using types of ornithischian? dinosaur. A wide range of crops were being grown - wheat, corn, rice, cotton, flax, fruit trees and even sugar cane and bananas. They also saw pigs, cattle and sheep, among other domesticated things.

As twilight began to draw near they approached a large village. Really it was a small walled town, with a large keep and Elizabethan stone hall. The Boys decided that it might be politic to change the small neck ruffs were wearing for the large neck ruffs, and to wear their studded leather armor. Passing a livery stables, where they could take shelter, they reached the gateway. The guards denied them entry, clearly wanting to know who they were. The fact that the guards could not understand them caused great consternation. The guards started to behave a bit like headless chickens. Trian removed Leo's bridle and deactivated the Slave Collar. Rex, now angry, exerted his coercion and paralysed the outside guards. Leo's mind linked with Trian's farsense, and Leo used his telekinesis to unbar and throw open the gates. Then they walked in. Since the guards were clearly trained to have as much respect for life as British Cops, they avoided hostilities, merely following the Boys. The Boys wanted a drink so they headed to the nearest well. Using telekinesis to operate the well bucket made quite an impression.

Now the Boys needed a place to stay for the night. Perhaps they should just walk through the town and find some abandoned dungeon or keep to stay in. However, by this time the hue and cry had spread and a scholarly type of person came up to the Boys. He was a telepath, and the local Healer. Using mental glyphs, which was a technique largely new to the Boys,

he asked [flashing image of us] ==. _"why are you here?"_

We indicated [image of us passing by]

he asked [images of us flashing all over the place] == "_Where are you going ?_"

[Image of golden tower]

Emotional feeling of curiosity == _"why ?"_

[Image of a big gold dragon sitting on a nest of us]

The healer politely told the guards to buzz off. He began to question the Boys further, and using the glyphs became easier. Trian replaced Leo's Slave Collar, Bracers and Bridle, and the Healer took the Boys for a walk around the town. The Healer explained to the worried official, who was also a telepath, and to a senior guard who had appeared, that the Boys were the youngest sons of the local Dragon Lord, who had just returned, and being raised in another, very strange, realm, the Boys were neither house trained, nor used to dealing with civilised people, nor did the Boys have any knowledge of proper manners or etiquette. The Boys should just be politely ignored unless it was obvious that they needed help.

The town could best be described as Elizabethan, with the people, Human, Argonian and the odd Khajiit, dressed in a hotch potch of styles, with the Elizabethan dress code predominating. You could tell a persons rank either from the size of their ruff (and swagger) or the clothing fabrics they used. So the Boys own Elizabethan costume fitted in Dress Wise. There seemed to be good sanitation involving the use of hot springs and night light crystals were in use. The town had all the shops required by a civilised society - blacksmiths, tailors, stationers (paper makers), apothecaries (medieval drug store), alchemists (medieval industrial chemists), leather workers (pooh), etc. There were several Inns, a theatre, houses of ill repute( for both sexes), a couple of large primary schools and grammar schools for the townspeople, guildhall and daily market. The market traders obtained many trade goods by bartering at special trading portals outside the town. Other goods came by pack or wagon mule from the other town or from the nearest port.

Asking about the schools, they were told that clever or magical, town and manor, children were sent for advanced schooling at the Governing Baron's Great Hall. The town even had a scriptorium for the production of parchment, papyrus and bark manuscripts. Such high quality works were often enchanted. Next door there was a printing press for ordinary stuff like news sheets and penny dreadfuls (the same thing really). There was also a public library attached to a sort of Mages Guild - the local technical college?

Asking about the practice of magic, the Boys were told that except for the main areas of magic taught by the town's mages, personal tuition was required. The main areas, schools, of magic were Restoration, Alteration and Illusion. These all had generally beneficial or useful purposes. The Schools of Conjuration and Destruction were not considered "helpful" while the School of Mysticism was officially banned by Dragon Order, although it was not actually illegal to learn it, just to teach it. The Boys guessed that this was because Mysticism is concerned with Psi abilities which include teleportation, and might cause serious problems if any unscrupulous mage was to tamper with the portals. Telepathy was a special case, and the only area of Mysticism that was dealt with, under the School of Restoration. The Schools of Enchantment and Alchemy were either taught privately or partially covered under Restoration, i.e. the making of, possibly enchanted, healing potions.

The market had a large building attached with pens, slave pens, and slave cages. The Healer explained that the Slave Traders we had seen, who had arrived a few hours earlier, travelled around the island, buying and selling male slaves at the manors, and exchanging male slaves with other slave traders at the portals or the harbours. Slavery was the common judgement meted out on minor male criminals. Many male Serfs often wanted to become slaves in order to leave their manors; as slaves were permitted to marry this was often a good idea. Male slavery could be hereditary, being determined by obscure laws derived from High Rock. Most slaves were employed in farming or domestic service as footmen or cleaners. Slaves could also gain their freedom by doing arduous or dangerous work as miners, loggers, sewer cleaners, (chained) oarsmen and soldiering.

The larger, or more difficult, business concerns, such as schools, entertainment, manor reclamation and resettlement, mining (which used many slaves), shipping (needing galley slaves), slaving and slave trading, were run as limited businesses in which the towns people or Corporation, could invest. It was common to invest in landed estates. This provided additional sources of income for pensions, poor relief, and an unusually large and vibrant middle class. In short, the verminous occupations of the shady Stockbroker, over bonussed Banker and extortionate Lawyer. Such people often founded new manorial families or rich marriage dowries to struggling estate heirs.

As for a place to stay, the Inns seemed a bit too rowdy by now, and the Boys had no money anyway. Since what was clearly the slave barracks building was clean and had amenities, and as the Slave Traders were "now used" to the boys, they decided to stay in the building for the night. The officials however, were eager to avoid any trouble, and sent us a hamper with bread, cheese, fruit, cider and fruit juice.


	4. About Town

In the morning Leo morphed back to human form. The Boys then had a good look at the, quite well planned, Town and the Keep. The market even had pineapples. They noticed several, Elves, selling stuff! Traditionally Elves and Dragons do not mix. Elves tend to be haughty, and so get up Dragon's snouts. Being comparatively friendly, Trian was able to talk telepathically to the elves and discovered that these were High Elves who had been allowed by The Dragons to create a deep forest settlement in one of the hard to find nearby wooded valleys. They sold various high value forest products and arcane services in return for supplies.

Then it was Rex's turn to be collared and muzzled. He was not a happy dragon.

During the day the Boys made rapid progress, and again passed by several manors as the region was quite populated. The manors were much the same as those the Boys had seen before entering the town, though perhaps the fortifications were less robust, the halls more extravagant, and more window glass was in evidence. The Boys could scry that the herb gardens were larger and the flower garden mazes more elaborate. There were even greenhouses, literally. The glass used was not lead crystal, first discovered in Elizabethan England, but used a copper oxide, its green colour preventing excessive heat transmission.

Towards the end of the day the manors became more wooded, and then the open park land began again. At the end of the day they rested in another abandoned dungeon. Some enterprising Kadjiit operating from the nearby Keep attempted to mug the Boys, but cowered the instant Rex snarled at them. They were only some local kits trying to make a bit on the side in a Dragon Realm bandit version of Trick or Treat.

The next day it was Trians's turn again to be collared and muzzled.


	5. Parkland, Henges and Barrow Downs

Soon the park land changed into open grass land, and going down into a shallow wide valley the Boys found they had entered a Barrow Down. The valley was surrounded by an tall embankment marked with paired menhirs where the road passed through and was filled with tumuli. The tumuli varied in size, the largest being at the centre with small menhirs beside their entrances. In the centre there was a cross roads. There were the hostile psychic auras of irritated ghosts in the area, and each of the barrows was clearly inhabited by a Barrow Wight. Cautious travellers should not stray from the road. Barrow Wights were no danger to the Boys, being a type of coercive and illusion spinning zombie, but they were a distraction. Reaching the Cross Roads, the Boys, rather than going straight on to The Dragon Towers, decided to branch off and take the road which would eventually lead to the other Main Road. It was also noticeable that around the embankment there was a rutted track way, evidently travellers and carts avoided going through the Barrow Down.

One of the track ways the Boys passed going out seemed to have been surfaced. Investigating they found that it branched of into open down land. On the horizon the Boys could see a henge on a low hill top surrounded by fields of livestock and a small farmstead of simple dwellings, thatched round-houses rather than the thatched wattle and daub cottages of the poorest Serfs or the timber-framed cottages of the better off Serfs and other peasants. There was an odd haziness about the area and the Boys decided not to investigate, it had an arcane aura which said "Do Not Disturb Without Good Reason". Not a warding but an attitude.

Going to the top of the embankment, in the other direction the Boys could see a distant manor half hidden within woodland. The manor seemed to be little more than a small walled keep with residence hall and a collection of windowless towers. Scrying failed to reveal anything more than a blacksmith and a few outbuildings, no servants houses, serfs cottages, or fields. The only evidence of activity appeared to be cleared and coppiced surrounding woodland, presumably for fuel. Attempting to scry the towers only revealed a haze. That was a give-away, obviously something arcane was in operation there, and there was a distinct feeling that the place was guarded by arcane means. Trian alone else all the brothers together might be able to probe it, but there might be repercussions. It could seriously drain them and it was still early in the day. Best to be away from the Barrow Down.

Continuing from the Barrow Down, the Boys entered park land again. Some parts of this area, cut off by the Barrow Down from the Town, were clearly overgrown abandoned field systems and even whole manors. These were frequented by various small predators feeding on the abundance of rabbits, prairie dogs and gophers - cats, varanids, pythons, small raptors, eagles and even small 4" phorusrhacid Terror Birds. The Boys had no desire to meet a pack of 8" high phorusrhacids with 3" long beaks. Larger herbivores, Deer, small ornithischians (or whatever) and wild boar were also feeding in the abandoned fields and the undergrowth. A medieval crop rotation system was being used, so soil failure did not explain the abandoned manors. Many of the wooded areas were being extensively coppiced, and charcoal burners could be seen at work.

Several times the Boys heard the sound of the hunting horn, and eventually they encountered a large human hunting party complete with hunting dogs and falcons. The noble leading the party was pretty snooty, and discovering that the Boys were unintelligible, ignored them. The family tutor, also a minor healer, was able to communicate with the Boys, and stressed that the Lord, a very minor noble of a new re-established family on the make, was simply nervous of the Boys, was worried about losing face, and despite appearances, was not wanting to give offence. The tutor told the Boys that the whole area was a mixture of abandoned or re-established estates, and excellent for hunting deer, wild boar, other large edible wildlife, as well as offering excellent criminal and runaway slave hunts. It appeared that this was the local alternative to playing at Hunt the Fox. That recalled a quotation which went something like "the stupid in pursuit of the inedible".

The Boys were able to learn that because the heirs to whole estates could get "lost" on dungeon quests, or at playing the Knight Errant, whole manors could end up having to be sold off because manors could only be inherited through the male line, unless a massive marriage transfer fee was paid by some well heeled knight or lucky commoner. These strict inheritance rules ensured that estates did not amalgamate. The Baronial families themselves had only one large home manor, with satellite manors belonging to the extended family, and others owing feudal fealty. If a manor was sold by being broken up, the movable assets were sold and that included the serfs. Abandoned manors either stayed "abandoned", being favoured by the charcoal burners for growing hickory and builders for growing willow and hazel, or were eventually reclaimed by people who had made some money by Adventuring, often with the support of the property investment companies.

Enquiring about the Henge and Keep near the Barrow Down, the Boys were told that the Keep was the very private and select monastic school of magic, arrogantly named "The Place of Wisdom", while the henge belonged to nature worshipers who acted as a priesthood to the three remote illiterate and squabbling upland clans, each based around a hilltop opidum, a sort of village plus workshops plus palace plus fortification set-up. There were also some small communities, often of an arcane nature, living in isolated Brochs - a sort of cylindrical tower keep. The clans, when not beating each other over the head, traded cattle, slaves, fine hand crafted weapons and ornaments in return for raw materials and a few manufactured goods. It sounded rather Celtic; if so then the hippy priests were Druids.

Finally reaching a livery stables, the Boys realised that near each livery stable (the town had stables outside both main gates) were teleporters for the routes to and from The Dragon Towers. The livery stables lay amid lakes set in a mix of wooded park land occupied by deer and dwarf sauropods and grassland grazed by gigantic armadillo like glyptodonts, giant tortoises, ankylosaurs and dwarf hadrosaurs. The Boys spent the late afternoon watching flamingo like pterosaurs and colourful ducks feeding, skimmers and pterosaurs skimming over the lake waters, and fish eating raptors prowling the reed beds. while various terrapins basked on the shore and parrot beaked oviraptors prowled round the lake edge for anything edible. The lake shore teamed with small crocodile like phytosaurs and giant amphibia. In the undergrowth varanid lizards, land crocodiles, and more advanced small predators prowled. In the woodland they could see deer and therizinosaurs browsing. The therizinosaurs had the head of a prosauropod dinosaur, neck of a sauropod, body of a turkey, tail of a lizard, the arms of a giant anteater, and the legs of a deformed bird Some areas were like the pampas, and dominated by giant termite mounds. Some were Kwama termites and grew up to 1" long. Termites are tropical animals and the Boys noted the presence of hot springs in the termite inhabited areas. And of cause, Kwama are common inhabitants of the lower slopes of Morrowind's Red Mountain. There were also standard termite predators to be seen, giant anteaters and weird alvarezsaurids, bird like dinosaurs with anteater snouts and minute but monstrously clawed arms. Exactly what ate the Kwama, which used a noxious chemical spray for defence, was not clear. Possibly the varanids and small therapods, which were using the kwama burrows to incubate their eggs in, did.

Dad had told the Boys that The Dragon Realm was populated by a mixture of living and extinct animals and plants. Because of background radiation, Jurassic Park resurrection methods do not work, but a method based on advanced applied quantum mechanics can. Since a record of every thing that has occurred exists in the fabric of space time, it was just a matter of copying the atomic pattern of the dead animal or plant onto existing nutrient goo, or something else. The Dragon Realm's priceless Reconstructor had been concealed by Dad's last human ancestor in the sealed vaults beneath Dad's Dragon Tower, along with the equipment needed to create new Dragon Staffs, and the cloning equipment to create new descendants. All Dragons have caches sealed in vaults hidden beneath their towers. That is the origin of the silly legend that Dragons horde treasure attractive to Adventurers. But the really of the true nature of a Dragons Horde is that gold is only useful for making electronic devices, whereas the cached equipment could be used to provide things to trade between Dragons.

The Boys avoided the usual night-time rain by staying in a nearby dungeon cum tumulus. They were finding dungeons quite pleasant places to stay, once the vermin had been evicted. The tumulus was guarded by zombies, ghouls and giant vermin. All of which were ersatz. All the guards responded to the telepathic commands that Dad had given them. They investigated the tumulus but found that the treasure chests for trapping Knights Errant and other Adventurers had not been restocked yet. The whole place was just a combination of "public entertainment", social engineering (providing work for younger sons of the gentry) and Dragon created Trap.


	6. More Parkland, Mystic Towers and Barrows

In the morning it was Leo's turn again to be collared. They continued through the lake land and geyser beds, using bridges both artificial and (apparently) natural. Eventually they encountered another area of both abandoned manors and working manors which were small and reclaiming abandoned land. The amount of coppiced woodland seemed quite large, and there were more charcoal burners. Several times the Boys heard hunting horns, and even saw a couple of small Argonian hunting parties that were hunting small beaked protoceratopsians, the dinosaur equivalent of the wild boar.

Eventually the Boys reached another Barrow Down containing a cross roads. As with the previous Barrow Down, its embankment was circled by a track way. Going up to the top of the embankment the Boys could just see a tower half concealed within woodland. The tower resembled a fortification wall cylindrical tower or maybe more a Broch, perhaps three stories high. There were no observation ports or windows visible. The tower seemed to exude a repellent glow. When the Boys concentrated they found that the glow was an illusion, repellent to the visible and psychic senses. The Boys attempted to scry the tower, but found that they could only sense a dense haze; only a couple of outbuildings and a stone wall with gateway surrounding the tower were revealed. The Boys decided that whatever was there wanted privacy and might best be avoided, for now. As it would soon be getting dark, this time the Boys decided to rest in one of the Barrows, ordering the resident Barrow Wight to desist annoying them and tell them where the water supply was.


	7. Trouble at the Town Gate

In the morning it was Trian's turn to be collared and muzzled. Turning off, again the road began to run past small prosperous manors, all of which were separated by coppiced woodland with charcoal burners at work. These manors had a more military look; a larger keep with no hall and with substantial gate houses. The serfs and slaves seemed friendly enough, but the guards and guard patrols seemed more business like. Slaves, obvious as they all wore metal or metal with leather collars, seemed very much in evidence. The metal collared slaves tended to be used as guards; their collars had metal spikes. The Boys passed several large wagons carrying provisions in both directions during the day. Unlike the provision wagons the Boys had seen coming and going from the other town, these wagons were driven by slaves.

As night approached, the Boys passed another livery stable and reached the gates of the other main village. Really it depends by what ones definition of a village or towns size is. This town had a more martial look, and the Boys had a clairvoyant premonition that this was going to be a problem to enter. There was already an argument going on. The guards were getting mad at a group of visitors who, like us, could not speak the local lingo. We came up to them. The guards were getting nasty, so Trian was uncollared and hissed at them with wide open mouth in the standard raptor aggression stance (head down, tail up) with wings flapping. The guards backed down, but not much. It was as if they might have seen a dragon but had no respect for them. The Boys decided to back off, for now.

The Boys turned to the visitors. They were dinosaurian but with three eyes, three fingers on each hand, and three toes on each plantigrade foot, and no tail. There were also heat radiator flaps behind each ear hole. The three eyes reminded the Boys of something that Dad had told them about Zacathans, or rather the most advanced land adapted species from the Zacan star system. Dad had told the Boys that in some earlier life He had been a Zenopath, which ranked as a Lieutenant, assigned as the Zenobiologist and chief alien contact telepath on a long distance exploration star ship. Dad might be as rubbish at foreign languages as the Boys were, but the Mayan like Zacathan and the psychedelic colour based Krondaku scripts were another matter.

They got down to "talking". The Chief Zacathan and his trainee were telepaths and powerful psychcreators. So with the belligerent guards left on one side, the Boys learned that the Zacathan group were traders and explorers. Previous groups had been before and had no trouble at the Town, but obviously this was not the same Town. It was clear that if the Boys had waited outside to town long enough, a qualified (telepathic) official would have come to deal with them. The Boys suggested sleeping over at the livery stables, then escorting them to the other town in the morning.


	8. A Right Ignoble Punchup

That morning the Boys and the Zacathans awoke to find that Dad had arrived in his steel blue full plate armour via the teleporter. Dad was in a rage. Dad had suspected that while the road would pose no trouble for us, the towns might, and for some reason this town in particular. So there had been other watchers besides Kilgarath on watch duty. Both Liam and Kilgarath had nearly descended to chastise (or cook) the guards. Liam had then told Dad what had happened the night before. Dad gave us the copies of His armour that he had created in the enchanted forge together with padded underclothing with linen shirt and short ruff. The Boys had something to eat while Dad talked to the Zacathans, then Trian morphed into human form and the Boys got dressed, putting their leather suits into their back packs. Leo and Trian had steel blue armour while Rex had steel red armour, this colour suiting Rex's John Ross Ewing temperament. The short ruff showed around the gorget neckline just as in the Elizabethan Yeomen of The Guard. The armour came complete with visored helmet (to open, the visor was dropped instead of raised), a dragon shield to hang on the back, a dagger and a shocking mace. Although Dad's Dragon Fire Sword looked great, the Shocking Mace was preferable - crush an opponents armour, electrocute and beat the crap out of his body, but not hack the body open. Incapacitate but leave alive. Dad gave the Boys some silver crowns for supplies and services, telling them to beware of thieving Kadjiit, and said that He would sort out the Zacathans. Dad them morphed into dragon form and grew, huge.

Flying up into the air and then descending on the terrified gate guards, what followed was a vitriolic conversation which may be politely summarised as :

"You pathetic excuses for human vermin go tell your imbecile of a Guard Commander and fat excuse for a Town Governor to haul their sorry asses up here and see me now"

"Failure to comply will result in the towns hot water running cold, cold water running hot, deactivation of the trading portals, burning down the Keep and Great Hall, and a plague of Gremlins"

For good measure Dad burnt down the town gates.

Some time later the Guard Commander and the far from fat Town Governor, a Baron, arrived. Both acted indignantly as if there was nothing wrong. They undoubtedly thought that, but it just infuriated Dad. Dragons expect respect. Dragons demand respect. Without the dragons constant intervention, the local ecosystem and town sanitation and supply system would collapse. Dad, after a stream of caustic and extremely vulgar comments, then informed them that His three youngest hatchlings had been denied admittance and threatened, and the visiting Zacathans had also been treated insultingly and threatened. Just to push the point home, Dad did a Darth Vader throat squeeze on both of them and demanded that the Governor provided the Boys with horses when they left town. Why? The Boys did not know one end of a horse from the other end, now motorbikes they did know. Dad telepathed the Boys that horses could be mind controlled like the dogs. The gate guards and their superiors were to be put in the stocks.

Dad backed away and went over to the teleporter where He sat down. The Boys went into the town, followed by the Zacathans who wanted to see what was inside. The guards kept well out of their way now. The Guard Commander and the Baron beat a hasty retreat. The pair were sub-operant telepaths, so the Boys telepathically sensed that they were trying to concoct covering excuses to sell to a (hopefully) gullible populace.

Wandering round the town with the Zacathans, the Boys found significant differences from the other town. The military buildings were bigger and more complex. More guards and better armour. No scriptorium or mages guild, and as many armourers as blacksmiths - and there were more blacksmiths. There were even horses and segnos being ridden in the town, and mucking up the streets too. Obviously this was a military, brawn, town while the other town was a university, brain, town. The Boys managed to get the gist of what was being said about them from a Spellsword buying some potions.

The tale was that apparently the Boys were Spellswords belonging to some well established, well connected, but reclusive family that specialised in advanced magic. The Boys had been rased in another island, so knew neither the local language or etiquette, and so should be avoided and not insulted. The Spellsword thought that the tale sounded plausible, but doubted that such a reclusive family existed in this island. He had heard the rumours of the Mad Dragon frying the north gate, and suspected that the real tale was more like we were envoys from the other, rival, town, perhaps doing an errand for a dragon. The Baron was doing a cover up to save face and points. The Boys told him that they were baby dragons, and had been denied entry along with the Zacathans. The Mad Dragon was their Daddy. The Spellsword left to get a more correct rumour mill going.

A Junior Spellsword then came up to the Boys. Compared to the guards in the other town, he was heavily armoured, having a steel plate cuirass over his chain mail shirt, and half plate grieves suitable for riding. Unusually he had an arcane hairline and buzz cut hair just like the Boys. This suggested that he was related to the Boys by the rare female line of descent. He said that he was serving as a squire to the Barons oldest son, and belonged to an outlying branch of the family. He needed to attend at the jousts, otherwise he would be happy to show the Boys and the Zacathans round.

The Boys noticed some Dwarves selling in the market. Now Dwarves are not your amiable Enchanted Forest Dwarfs, but thieving axe toting vermin. Elves may be arrogant smart arses but they don't steal. Dwarves break into dragon's vaults, steal equipment and either soil or trash the rest. The Boys approached the Dwarves and realised from their technomagical goods that they were actually Dweamer Elves, once common in north-eastern Tamriel. One of the Dweamer was a minor telepathic psychocreator, so the Boys learned that they had been allowed to settle on an outlying island, and travelled here by portal to sell dwarven weapons, armour, and technical devices like telescopes and machine tools.

Outside the town's south gate was a fair and tournament ground. On closer inspection, the fair ground was more of an open air market and practice area, with training services for sale. Several armour repairers were present together with stalls selling general purpose pieces of armour - fitted armour or garnitures (general purpose armour sets using additional pieces), required going to an armourer or good blacksmith. Some of the armour being sold was partly bronze and looked Hellenic.

The tournament ground was also being used for practice jousting. Every male there was in some sort of armour: leather, chain mail or plate; a few people were wearing Hellenic armour. The Boys full plate armour was not highly ornamented like some there, but was clearly of the best design and highest quality. The Boys armour also had spiked elbows and knees with gauntlets, not gloves, and was chased with mithril. Such armour would be worth a small fortune, but the Boys armour was multiply enchanted to reduce weight and strengthen it, so it was worth a King's Ransom.

Wandering round the Boys proceeded to encounter some young bucks who thought too much of themselves. Undoubtedly they had family connections with the local Baron, and were wanting to impress. The Boys problem was that they didn't know how to wear armour correctly and were carrying their packs around, which looked silly. Only in computer games do you have an invisible (and infinite) inventory. It was apparent that the young bucks were having a good laugh at the Boys expense. When the chief buck stepped up to Leo, sniggered, and gave Leo a poke, it was time to act.

Leo punched the buck in the chest. This should have done nothing as Leo was not that strong, and was not positioned to have maximum advantage. However, Leo's psychokinesis and Trian's creativity was backing the punch up. The bucks expensive steel cuirass weakened and caved in, while the buck was sent straight backwards, into and along with his friends, who were then pinned to the ground by Leo's and Rex's psychokinesis. The Boys then fire flayed the bucks, not enough to badly burn them, but Trian used reversed redaction to make their nerves more sensitive to heat. The bucks screamed as if they were being burned alive. With the bucks incapacitated, Leo concentrated on morphing himself and his armour, and then sprayed venom into the eyes of the chief buck. Ouch.

Next the Boys had to deal with the onlookers, as their clairvoyantly had sensed trouble. The fairground guards had taken exception to the Boys defending ourselves and were moving in. Leo attempted to dissuade them, but most ignored his open jaw hissing and wing flapping display. So the idiots ended up being tossed in the air, and coming down with painfully loud crunch's.

The question was, what now? Trian decided to try and recall all that he knew about Daedric Summoning Incantations from his scroll creation work in Storybrooke. Being able to summon a Scamp would upset any normal aggressors, while summoning any type of Atronatch would terrify them. Enemy mages were another matter. The Boys were mad, they were the aggrieved party, the Baron having done nothing to prevent this, just spreading lying rumours to cover his arse of a reputation. The Boys all decided to morph into dragon form as a precaution. Although they would have to hold their shields, their packs could be sling under their chests. Inelegant though. So, horses. The Boys went through the fairground and found a Battlemage, and telepathically loudly demanded that he deliver a verbal message to the livery stables :

"Baron ordered by our Father, THE Dragon Lord, to provide three horses. Horses to be available when we leave town. Cost to be paid by The Baron. Failure to comply == Livery Stables burnt to the ground, Baron to be made into kebabs for poor Argonians"

The Battlemage scurried of to deliver the message.

Quite a few other people in the fairground had picked up the message too; the rumour mill got working again. People cowered even more when the Boys approached them. They spent the rest of the day watching tournament practice while the Zacathans went back to the town. One of the aspiring knights at jousting practice was the Junior Spellsword relation the Boys had seen in the town, who asked if the Boys wanted to face him in combat practice. The Boys pointed out that they had neither horses or experience, except in magic, and even there they were learners. However, the Boys would definitely appreciate his assistance as a translator. He replied that he would join the Boys later.

In the meantime Dracos, Alex and Liam had been monitoring the entire sorry affair. The fight at the fairground was the last straw. The Baron had to go. The Barony was actually elective among the extended family members, and was not hereditary, while Dracos had a final veto on appointments, although with dragons not being good at politics, Dragon Lords rarely intervened. For now, Dracos contented himself with teleporting a Gremlin minion into the Halls council chamber maṇḍala with a written message for the Baron that went :

"Complaint : My Boys have been assaulted by thugs at the fair ground"

"Complaint : My Boys were then assaulted by the guards at the fair ground"

"Thugs and Guards to spend a week in the stocks"

"Demand : The Zacathan envoys need an immediate escort"

"Demand : My Boys require 3 horses for when they leave"

"Until all demands are met, Gremlins will trash the Great Hall and the Fort"

A small army of armed Gremlins was now hard at work tearing the Fort to pieces, while the Great Hall's basement was filling with scalding water from new geysers as the geothermal water supply went haywire.

The Baron was out of his depth. The best he could manage was to send the message to his eldest son, who was practising at the tournament fairground. Naturally HE was the big buck who had assaulted the Boys. Fortunately his squire was able to take charge, a certain Junior Spellsword aspiring to be a Knight. He knew that his master was not really bad, just too arrogant, and badly needed taking in hand. Using the implicit authority of the message, he told the rest of the guards that the Boys were the youngest sons of The Dragon Lord and to be protected from troublemakers. Then he told the livery stables to arrange for the horses. Then he went to the Hall and sought out the resident Mage, who was trying to keep out of the way of the Gremlins, and told him to find someone to act as interpreter for the Zacathans and find them accommodation. He was hoping that if his Lord, companions and the guards had been hurt enough, The Dragon Lord might overlook the stocks; perhaps a stay in the dungeons would suffice. He returned to the Boys and asked them if Dracos might be amenable. The Boys were not into politics either, but saw that clemency might be wise, and a private incarceration would serve better than public humiliation. Shortly afterwards, the Gremlin plague abated and the errant geysers ran dry.

The Junior Spellsword suggested to the Boys that as his family had a town house, the Boys could stay there before moving on. It would also be a well administered snub to the Baron. He also suggested that while the Boys were in town, he should arrange for them to be taught how to move correctly in their armour. The town's reason to be was martial, providing troops if needed, while the other town provided mages and other specialists. However. it was also earned a vital profit from it's most expensive entertainment side - jousting.

Jousting was really just expensive feudal entertainment, and everyone loved to see it. The fairground provided daily martial training services in the use of sword, shield, quarter staff and other kinds of weapons and armour. The tournament ground was used for jousting, group combat, and gladiatorial practice, with more serious weekend sessions, sort of the local team at play along with spectators. Each month there were more serious matches, and every quarter there were the Quarterly Jousting Championships along with group combats and gladiatorial matches.

There were two competing gladiator schools somewhere near an out of the way village towards the coast, stocked by dungeon acquired slaves although anyone could sign up for a 5 year indenture. Just as people owned shares in race horses, they could also buy shares in gladiators, or jousting teams. The other town also had a tournament ground and gladiator school, but by comparison they were amateur or hobby affairs; the tournament ground was for practice and friendly combats while the gladiators were volunteers with a stiffening of gladiator slave rejects donated by the serious gladiator schools. Enquiring further about the use of slaves, the Boys learned that the economy of this region was heavily dependant on slaves because so much manpower was required for the military, and most slaves had some military background. It sounded more than a little bit like ancient Sparta.

The Boys now felt safe enough to morph back to human form. Later, over dinner, the Junior Spellsword suggested that once the Boys had some basic schooling for reading and writing, they would find that the easiest way to learn all the Dragon Realms customs and etiquette would be by taking service as squires. The Boys didn't know what Dad had planned, other than to leave the US and UK business operations on auto pilot. Dad had talked about visiting Tamriel at some point. And there was also the prospect of visiting the other Dragon Realms nearby (those that Dad was on speaking terms with). And there was the wider world to consider. Nevertheless, Leo quite fancied becoming a Knight and doing Gladiator training, while Rex was more interested in being a villainous Black Knight and a Gladiator than he would openly admit. Trian however, was less convinced. Trian was more sensitive, i.e. relatively delicate. Wearing armour was a lot more fun than fighting in it, and Trian was really quite a placid, if eccentric, dragon. Trian would miss his brothers badly. So would Dad, even though there were Alex's and Liam's children to visit him. Trian also suspected that because it was so dangerous, gladiator training would be a no-no.


	9. Learning about horses

The Boys remained in town for another two days, being taught how to manage their armour properly and also received some basic training on how to use shield and mace. They were also introduced to the horses. Horses come in three basic types : horses for humans, chalicotheres for humans and argonians, and segnosaurs for argonians. Horses cannot normally be ridden by argonians or dragons because of accommodating the tail. Chalicotheres are slow, need a special seat, and may look the rider in the eyes. The boys opted for segnosaurs since they were dragon compatible, and could still be ridden by a human, just as an ostrich can. Like the chalicotheres, segnosaurs are rather more versatile over food as they can feed from shrubs and trees. And unlike horses, chalicos and segnos are more comfortable to ride. By this time the town was getting back to normal, and the guards were a lot more careful in how they treated the Boys. The Baron and his three sons were now doing their best not to notice us, without giving offence. The Zacathans had been given a guide and left town.


	10. Back into the woods

The Boys rode in dragon form through wooded countryside interspersed with militarily organised manors. These militarised manors also seemed to use a lot of slaves, recognisable by their metal or metal with leather collars. As in the manors on the north side of town, many of the guards were slaves wearing metal spiked collars. This time the guards seemed more relaxed and friendly, a sign that we were approaching The Dragon Towers. As the boys had seen earlier, the wagons that they passed on the road were driven by slaves.

All of the manors had extensively coppiced woodland growing hickory and other woods to produce charcoal. The military nature of the manors and the town required a constant supply of charcoal for iron working since there were no coal deposits in the Dragon Realms. From some wagons the Boys had seen a week before, some charcoal was probably bought in from the other town.

At the end of the day the Boys stopped in a large ruined keep. Allowing the segnos to roam within the curtain walls, the Boys foraged for food outside the keep. Setting a fire going they decided to try and see what the fruit and fungus was like roasted under hot coals - not too bad as it happened..


	11. Entering The Wild

The next day the countryside became less wooded. The road was turning more towards the centre of the island, and was rising up. The land was more rocky, the soil shallower and less fertile. Plantings of low-grade coppiced woodland for charcoal were being used for soil management. The manors were poorer, though just as military, and there were fewer slaves evident. There were also fewer goods wagons on the road. The Boys also passed several slave chain gangs, generally a dozen slaves with loose leg irons and chained together by the neck, controlled by a couple of whip and club wielding guards. Judging by the tools the slaves were carrying, it appeared that these were labour gangs being used for estate renovation. There were also well wooded deep ravines visible from the ridge tops, but they had a dark forbidding look. Scrying revealed that they contained large, dangerous, inhabitants like giant spiders and super scorpions. There were also many dry geysers and fumaroles.

At the end of the day the Boys stopped in a another large ruined keep which was occupied by Slavers. The dungeon contained many slaves, some being treated for minor injuries; obviously they had been newly reclaimed from the traps. There was even a crude smithy outside the keep, for repairing collars and chains. The slavers healer, a slave himself, told the Boys that many places like this existed, but only one other was on a road side, on the other road at a similar inland location. The Boys were coming to the uninhabited central volcano region, filled with all sorts of dangers, such as goblins and trolls who guarded the more valuable treasure hoards attracting Adventurers, hence the need for a Slaver Base. However, there was the Cat and Fiddle Inn a day's journey hence were the Boys could get supplies. It was a good thing that the Boys still had most of the silver crowns that Dad had given them.


	12. At The Cat and Fiddle

The next day, the Boys found themselves in more hostile terrain. The teleporters were absent and there were fewer ruins. The few keeps that the Boys could see, were away from the road and had a more ruined look. There did seem to be more caves, and also lava tubes infested with tree roots and arthropods such as scorpions and giant cave crickets. The road itself became harder as the landscape became more fissured. Food was harder to find, since the cornucopia pods needed a forest environment. Nevertheless there were some areas of bog to wade through, and "troll" country, flat land deeply riven by streams and covered with dwarfed rhododendrons and other shrubs. There were a surprising number of trails connecting up to the road. The reason for this became clear when the Boys passed a slave chain gang. They were accompanied by a slave drawn cart filled with food supplies and mining tools. The Boys also met the odd oncoming wagon of dry goods, mainly sulphur and unrefined metals. Eventually, the Cat and Fiddle Inn could be seen. It was a large Keep at the top of a cliff, with a teleporter nearby.

When they reached the Cat and Fiddle Inn, the Boys discovered that it had multiple uses. One building and its dungeon was used by Slavers. The courtyard contained a blacksmith and leather workers. One of the towers and its dungeon was used by mine owners for their slaves and goods. The main building contained the Inn, which was more of a barracks for the guards employed by the Inn's owners. The Boys were able to stable the segnos, and get a room. Morphing to human form, the Boys were able to get information from the Inn's resident healer. The Healer said that there was a constant stream of adventurers coming to the Inn, two or three a week, and a small to large slave convoy leaving every fortnight. There were several mines and related enterprises in the area, so the Inn served to bring the produce together and acted as a mineral market. The main things produced were sulphur, salt, gemstones, crystal, obsidian, tin, copper, lead, and various unrefined ores. Having the Slave Traders and the Mine Owners in the same keep allowed for the efficient sale of slaves. Also, some new slaves might volunteer for mine work in order to gain their freedom. Despite the apparent lack of ruins, there were actually several large buried keep and dungeon complexes in the region, all very rich and attractive to adventurers. And also very dangerous.

From the top of the main keep, the Boys were able to see The Dragon Towers in the distance. The top of the volcanic peak seemed to have been terraced, and built over with terraces of cyclopean stone blocks. On the terraces were three Dragon Towers and some smaller keep like buildings. Each Tower looked like a cross between Mad King Ludvig's white fantasy castle in Bavaria (Or Walt Dizney's film credits castle), and Wizard Prince Pendragon's medieval island castle in Jack The Giant Killer - the old film, not the new one were Ewan McGregor is wearing studded leather armor based on the Boys own studded leather armor. Dad's tower, or rather castle, was on the top terrace, and besides its existing sub tower, two additional sub towers had been built so that the Boys would each have a sub tower to live in. Whether the Boys would want to live in separate sub towers (study, bed and bath) with their own slaves was not an option, it would be expected of them as Junior Dragon Princes. As Dragon Princes the Boys would have to treat slaves and visitors appropriately; this wasn't Storybrooke or Tideswell. There would still be a communal sitting room cum library.


	13. Deep in The Wild Lands

The next day the Boys had to decide how to proceed. If they used the teleport they could go directly to The Dragon Towers. Otherwise it probably meant a two-day journey as the road snaked up and around to a place that looked like a ruined Morrowind Dwemer city. They could get provisions at the Inn but feeding the Segnos could be a problem. Of cause the Boys could sell the Segnos, or just leave them at the Inn, un-case their wings and fly. They decided to ride.

The ride was easy at first, but got steadily worse. In several places the road went through a tunnel. Occasionally they passed a cart going to or from a mine, sometimes with a slave convoy. There was little vegetation now, except in steep gullies where water collected. As it rained every night, these gullies obviously played a part in stream water control. Little flora and wildlife was in evidence, except for sphagnum moss, sundews, pitcher plants, various invertebrates and the odd lizard. In the distance, large Morrowind style fortresses, reminiscent of mesoamerican pyramids, could be seen.

That night the Boys came across a tiny roadside dungeon set in a wooded cutting. It was the first roadside ruin since the Inn, and looked, new. The Boys left the Segnos to graze in the cutting outside. Investigating inside, the boys disturbed some bat winged, toothy, scaly creatures holding tools who instantly grovelled, Gremlins. The place had been built just for the Boys to use. There was even hot water provided by the first hydrothermal vent the Boys had seen for some time. It all hinted at an advanced hidden underground infrastructure.


	14. At the foot of the mountain

By morning the Gremlins were gone, having vanished into the network of tunnels used by them to secretly service the various ruins. The Boys later learned that part of the regular tribute given by the Barons, a tax on the wealthy, was coinage used to restock the ruins. Money i.e. gold, was always popular with Adventurers. In the underground vaults, the dragons automated laboratory manufactured potions while the 3d printers produced cheap and cheerful weapons and armour. Only occasionally did Dad enchant new items, preferring to collect enchanted items as tribute and recycle them, so preventing the value of enchanted items in this part of The Dragon Realm suffering from price deflation. There was not that much work involved in making and distributing treasure vault items either. Most treasure vaults were poor, just money and maybe potions or low-grade weapons and armour. A determined serf with a dagger and quaterstaff could raid them, and be happy at the outcome. It would take several successful treasure vault raids to get enough decent equipment to be able to raid the next level of treasure vault with any chance of success. To raid the richest treasure vaults needed high quality equipment and training or magical ability.

Soon the Boys reached a T junction of sorts. It appeared that a road completely encircled the base of the mountain Continuing along this road, by late afternoon the Boys reached some Dwemer style ruins. There was a teleport nearby and access through the ruins to grazing for the Segnos. Leaving the Segnos to graze, and fairly sure that no predators would bother them, the Boys entered inside the ruins through a large circular vault door. The door was un-powered, operating on a weighted pivot. Inside the ruins the Boys eventually found another circular vault door to the underground section. Going down the stairway with the aid of Ghost Lights, they found that they were in an underground complex leading into the mountain. Steam was coming from certain vents, which suggested that there ought to be power. The various vault doors were locked by a simple push key system that could be defeated by scrying. Accessing the only unlocked door, they entered into a cave system.

The cave system was lit by an eerie reddish back glow. The cave walls looked vitrified and eventually the Boys entered the main cavern. Below them, the floor of the cavern was filled with a lake that was connected to part flooded caves. There were also other large cavern entrances; these caverns held the source of the reddish back glow - lava. On the other side of the lake, accessed by an iron bridge, was a "castle", just like that out of the Sinbad the Sailor film where an evil wizard lived on an island in an underground castle with a dragon. The Boys decided to ignore the castle, it was too much like a trap, indeed they could scry skeletons inside. In-fact it was a "main entrance" that would have eventually led them up to the terraces above.

Instead the Boys opted for trying the water filled cave that had a walkway. Again, the caves walls were vitrified by extreme heat, as if it had once been some sort of high temperature lava tube. At intervals it was crossed by raised stone bridges. It looked as if shallow boats might have travelled down this water way. Scrying revealed that it extended beyond easy scrying range, and was part of quite a maize of underground waterways. They decided to cross over. Without Ghost Lights, farsight or torches it would have been pitch dark, and quite dangerous. No explorer was really likely to venture this way. Eventually they found a side passage leading to a sealed hatch.

By scrying the hatch they could work out which buttons to press, although it required either psychokinesis or electrokinesis to move the inner locking system. Closing the door behind them, they found that the power supply had been disconnected from the hatch. The cave eventually gave access to a illuminated cavern.

The cavern was full of huge pens which were overgrown with vegetation and even anaemic trees. The floor was covered by a plastic? drainage mesh. There was some sort of drip feed system for supplying water to the plants. The lighting appeared to be incandescent, but fluorescent tubes would never have lasted more than a couple of years. The Boys guessed that this was were laboratory livestock had been kept before release. There were other caves, sealed with hatches. Rather than try them the Boys headed for a large building which was surrounded by a strong wire fence. The Boys were very tired now. They were in full plate armour and carrying their packs with their two leather suits and studded armour in. Passing through a gate and entering the building through a lockable door, they found that it was indeed a monitoring station. Any scientific equipment had been removed, but some facilities remained in the form of bunks, wash room, toilets, and an apology for a canteen. The Boys decided that it would be best to morph into human form. They removed their armour, for now, and put their studded leather armor on. They also sensed that they were not alone, Gremlins were around. They made a meal from fruit growing in the pens then slept.


	15. Into The Towers

The next day, the Boys put on their armour, and exited by the rear of the building. There were some electrically driven transport buggies but they needed charging up. Another gate gave access to another smooth walled cave. This was lit by crystalline material, which they were later to learn was similar to that used by the people of the Hollow Earth city of Praxis. Eventually they passed through another circular pivoted vault door, and into another cavern. This too was incandescently lit with a water supply, but was growing little but giant fungi, ferns, mosses and lichens. There were many vault doored side caves, but the Boys continued to the end of the huge cavern were they found a teleporter. An inactive teleporter. However there was another circular door, one with a psychocreative energy lock. The lock was tuned to the standard dragon thought pattern.

Activating the lock, the door swung open, and the Boys went inside and were confronted by a portcullis. The Boys were able to open this by applying telekinesis to a simple opening switch on the other side. They now appeared to be in some sort of primitive medieval dungeon, all dark, dank and wet, with pit cells and other places of confinement. Some sections were lit by light shafts in the ceiling and walls, but access was prevented by metal grills. Metal grills also bared various small openings into other sections. The presence of Gremlins in these sections was evident. Eventually the Boys found a circular stairway lit from above that lead upwards. The Boys went up several floors until the top of the stairs gave out through a psychocreativly ( magically ) locked dungeon grill door.

Psychically opening and closing the dungeon grill door, the Boys entered into a new, medieval gothic, dungeon. This was dry and lit by what resembled torches. In fact the torches and their sconces were some sort of electrical illumination, despite appearing to be real flames. There were various types of cells, cages and torture chambers, currently none were in use. There was also an abundance of skeletons and cobwebs. Another circular stairway led upwards past the next dungeon level, and gave access via a magically locked grill door to the two top dungeon levels.

One through this door, the Boys found themselves in a level which looked like a roman gladiator dungeon with combat chambers. This dungeon had several occupants : chained up half-naked crop headed bearded gladiator slaves, who eyed the Boys curiously. Armed Gremlins were "on guard" here. The Gremlins released three gladiator slaves, who then gestured at the Boys packs. The slaves then proceeded to obediently carry the Boys stuff. The Boys found another stairway, which led them upward past another dungeon level and then through a solid locked dungeon door into the main part of the tower.

This was the real base of the tower. Decorated in medieval gothic castle style, there was a central shaft which was several levels high surrounded by several rooms and various passages, including passages out to the terrace and the other towers. Some of the passages ended in portals. At the base of the open shaft was a short lift, like an Oblivion piston tower lift. A Butler duly arrived, who instructed the gladiator slaves to change into Edwardian footmen's uniform, with narrow ruffs. It seemed that the several gladiator slaves had been supplied by Alex and Liam as prospective footmen for the Boys own use, the gladiators deciding which of the Boys they might like to serve, but with the Boys having the final say. No such luck with the Valet's, a snooty bunch of Imps all fully trained in the type of decorum we were expected to follow. The slaves all wore special collars which acted as telepathic amplifiers. While acting like mobile phones they also allowed the Boys to overcome the language barrier. In effect the Footmen were to be our pets, and could also teach us things like sword play. Rex was going to have fun in the dungeon being a gladiator.

The boys were washed and bathed by their Valets, who were tall Imps with well manicured horns, shaved heads, shiny well oiled wings and tails, and wearing immaculate ruffs with their footman's tailsuits. It was quite an experience for the Boys as the Valets were unbelievably self-important and officious. The Boys were then dressed in Evening Tails with narrow ruffs above the stand collar (Dad preferred the stand collar over the wing collar for tail suits). Diner with Dad was in a relatively small and comfortable dining room, then the Boys went to bed. Apparently the custom was that all highly trusted personal servants like valets were Imps. However, if a valued footman wished to become a valet, or was deemed to warrant it, they would be transformed into Imps. The Boys wondered what life would be like as an Imp; apparently there was a morphing modifier spell which could halt the Boys Human to Dracon morphing at an intermediate, Imp, stage. Such a spell could be useful as it could be easier to do some types of work in Imp rather than in Dracon form.


	16. Getting used to Footmen and Valets

The next day the Boys had to decide on what to wear while inside the Tower. Tail suits or tuxedos if they intended to remain in the tower, or else their Elizabethan leather suits or armour if they wanted to go outside or back into the "basement". Gladiator wear was available if Rex was really insistent, otherwise it was not correct to wear it above the Tower's dungeon levels. Two of the Boys cousins, who were quite young hatchlings, came from Alex's and Liam's Tower's with their pets for a quick visit.

Over the day the Boys explored the tower, and got to know the slaves who maintained it. The upper levels of the tower were decorated in a mixture of medieval castle gothic for the main rooms and wood panelled Jacobean Hall for the private rooms. Depending on location, the lighting was either by fake torches in sconces or luminescent crystals. There were levels for the servants, and above them levels for meetings and eating in human or dragon style, libraries and arcane laboratories. Dads private apartments were near the top , and the Boys were just below in the projecting sub towers.

The tower staff was not large, a Butler, Under Butler, Senior Footman, three Footman, a Hall Boy who was a Footman in training and for each of the Boys a personal Imp Valet and Footman. Dad had a Imp Valet and two Footmen. There were also specialist Footman looking after each of the libraries and laboratories, and the dogs. There was also a male Cook with a couple of assistants, the kitchen using superheated steam for cooking. A couple of special Porter Footmen obtained supplies from the hydroponics cavern. Apart from fish from the aquarium, the food was either vegetarian or quorn. A small army of Minions, Imps and machines did behind the scenes work, such as patrolling, guarding and looking after the Boys Segnos. As the Tower was low maintenance there was not a lot of cleaning or repair needed, so the work for the human servants was not arduous. This is why the Valets were so self-important and officious, they had nothing to do besides look after their owners. Footmen are expected to follow orders, so they acted as if they had no brains. However, all the slaves were extremely loyal to their owners. To some, being selected to work for a Dragon was the ultimate career option.

Over diner, in a relatively small and comfortable dining room, Dad explained to the Boys other aspects of the Tower's and the underlying infrastructure. When Dad, accessing his ancestral memories, had finally found His way with Alex and Liam from Tamriel, there had been no human settlement. The Towers did not exist, neither did the terraces. The "Dwemer ruins" were less ruined but were essentially both pointers and a red herrings, the real structures were underground in the form of the laboratory pens the Boys had found as well as storage vaults, hydroponics, water control systems that the Boys had started along, laboratories and computer controlled manufacturing areas. The Gremlins existed but were in cryostorage. The islands initial ecology was now fully matured and was starting to run wild. Dad had soon found the main laboratory residential area, and had got the automatic systems running. Using the construction equipment, the volcano top was terraced and some initial buildings made to house the dirigible that was in store and put up the optical and radio telescope array. With hydroponics working and the Gremlins active, by using the dirigible for transport it was possible to make additions to the ecology; the more complex an ecology is, the more robust it is. The core of the initial tower and the paved roads were constructed using the robotic equipment.

Several starter manors were constructed and Humans from Alex's and Liam's mothers families were then encouraged to emigrate from High Rock along with their dependants and found the two initial villages, while some Argonians from High Rock founded the harbour villages. Later these Argonians were joined by Humans who had a more Romano-Greek lifestyle. These were the people who were using the Hellenic armour. They used Greek style galleys to sail between the different island groups. The two harbour villages were Hellenic as were the villages on the outlying isles. Inland, linked to the Military Town by a gravelled road, was a Roman style community based around a walled Roman Village / Town with open air theatre / arena and outlying Villas. That was were the serious gladiator schools were. They had their own traditions, particularly in clothing, ceramics and architecture, but used the same language as the towns people, though with many local differences. They were independent of each other, and while answering to the over lordship of The Dragons Lords, were quite belligerent to each other, sometimes requiring divine arbitration during spats.

The Romano-Greeks were also slave dependant societies. A common practice was to transform the most muscular slaves in to Bull Men, Minatours, and keep them in underground labyrinthine prisons. Castrated Bull Men with a ring through the nose were commonly used on the farms instead of oxen. Uncastrated, therefore aggressive, Bull Men were used in the arena; these often escaped and hid out in isolated ruins, sometimes finding a way into Tamriel. Another type of being, created by the dragons as servants and found in rocky areas, were Harpies, generally small people with wings. Male Harpies have horns, bald heads and tails, therefore they are called Imps and may be found annoying the Romano-Greek communities and working at The Dragon Towers.. There were also the three Medusa sisters, prescient witches living in an abandoned "temple". No snakes for hair though, they were just very good at repulsive illusions and paralysis. It all sounded an interesting place for the Boys to visit. There were even small herds of Pegasids, however there were hard to find because they fly from island to island in search of the correct type of nutritious herbage.

As the population expanded (further immigration was restricted to accidental arrivals only) slaves were recruited to improve and expand the tower. When Alex and Liam started producing children, new towers were needed for them. Not long after the initial villages began to expand, the self governing institutions were set up and the various town and institution charters created. The paved road was vital, as it was the only way the various communities could easily trade resources. Even the gravelled road to the Roman town had required the Dragons to clear a way through impassable lava cliffs by using the photon cannon ( nicknamed The Sword of Sharn) stored in the miscellaneous arms cache hidden beneath The Dragon Towers.

When the schools of magic were regulated, the schools of Conjuration, Destruction and Mysticism became the concern of "outcast" mages such as The Druids. Small, relatively remote, rural Druid communities now existed, like the hamlet by the henge near the Barrow Down that the Boys had seen. Druids practised "Nature Magic", which was just Mysticism applied to environmental concerns. For a fee, and with Dragon approval of the syllabus, they helped train spellswords and battlemages. They could also provide weather forecasting. Along with the High Elf community concealed in the woods of a deep valley, they gave the University Town's countryside away from it's surrounding manors a Celtic otherworldly feel. Indeed that was how the three upland clans operated, as Celts, practising continual cattle rustling with the odd wife capture and slave napping as well.

When the Boys asked Dad about learning the lingo and etiquette by becoming squires it emerged that Dad already had the situation in hand. Private tuition in The Tower would deal with the immediate language issues. A small manor near the university town had been acquired and was being rebuilt to resemble Haddon Hall; Dad had wanted to buy Haddon Hall, but it belonged to the National Trust. This new Haddon Hall was to become a private Gentlemen's Finishing School (Evil Sisters need not apply) and was set on a hill within a wide expanse of attractive park land grazed by "cattle" (and other creatures). There was also good hunting, for the pot or to recapture runaway slaves, in the surrounding forest. Dad would have private quarters in His position of (silent) Head Governor, and the Junior Spellsword the Boys had met would do nicely as a Knight Trainer (to be fast tracked to His Knighthood). It was just a matter of selecting the other staff. The only problem would be that the Boys might have to attend incognito, which would mean that their Imp Valets would have to morph into Human form while in the school. Not a problem.

The school syllabus would include reading, writing, arithmetic (including How Not To Be Fleeced By Your Local Khajiit Trader) but not maths as the Boys knew that to A level, etiquette (vitally important when talking to Dragons or The Daedric Princes), manners, deportment, history, dancing, music, geography (of the Realms both here and elsewhere), natural history, theology (the identification, classification and understanding of arcane beings like Dracons, Daedra, Daemons, Wraiths and Lymlak, etc., etc.), astrology, basic astronomy, herbology, discipline (the treatment of inferiors and How To Flog Your Serf) and sport. Sport meant the rules of Chivalry and the knightly martial arts of Jousting and Melee Combat, which would please Leo, and, as a sop to Rex, gladiator studies. Trian was expected to drop out of most Sports in order to concentrate on more intellectual matters, like trying to turn lead into gold using the Philosophers Stone. Currently only The Twisted Imp had managed anything like that by spinning straw into gold.

Student intake was expected to be mainly from poorer Knightly families, or those having too many younger sons, as well as some of the intellectually oriented middle class, who might use their studies to gain advancement, much as special monastic schools provided trained non-clerical civil servants for the Tudor Monarchs.

The Boys were expected to be studying around 10 years or more, but this would be broken up with field trips and "work experience" such as dungeon design and stocking. A field trip to the Romano - Hellenic area of the Realm was being arranged, and a visit to Tamriel was a possibility. And there was always The Enchanted Forest. And there was the vexing question of what the Boys three Evil Sisters were doing (with their mother Maleficent) in their quest for World Domination. Unless they were going to give it up as a bad idea and try to terrorise The Enchanted Forest instead.

Or come here.

Perhaps a nice enchanted dungeon castle set-up to lure in Knights Errant would satisfy them.


End file.
